Speaking My Mind is about: Tobi, who is a middle aged, no, oh all right a slightly over the hill woman with all the imperfections that go with that, and this concerns her daily life's perceptions and experiences.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Tropical Storm Gustav has become a reality as of today!I thought at least we would get a few days off of lousy weather reporting.But twas not to be...Gustav is actually already having 60 mph winds, 996 mb, moving at 14 mph towards us from the eastern Caribbean. Since 75 MPH winds are a category 1 hurricane, and he is less than 1000 miles from southwest Florida this is not good.We are in the designated cone of uncertainty.Let me explain what that is just in case non Floridians are reading this.The cone of uncertainty is an area of possible storm fall, where it could go, maybe.It is more like a CYA for the meteorologists, including NOAA, Weather Channel, etc. all those pros. And can encompass an area of 100 miles or more in any direction.Unfortunately, for Hurricane Charley we weren't in that cone, and I am trying hard to remember if they had it way back then in August 13. 2004.We were told Charley was heading towards Tampa, 100 miles away; in our minds we were safe, and that ended up not being the case.

One of the good things about Gustav is we are still pretty much ready for whatever lies ahead, since we did not take all our shutters down, or use our supplies, extra gas included in that.We only took down the window covers down to let light in, otherwise it would be very dark inside and depressing, also in an emergency firefighters cannot get in as easily as they should be able to if you are locked up tighter than a drum.So we are ready, willing and able to deal with whatever Gustav wants to throw our way! Or we can leave if it is suggested by the emergency agencies. So we are good.

Correction: Last night I mentioned the Beijing openings ceremonies cost 100 million, I believe I was wrong, and I think I heard today it was actually, can you believe 100Billion???? They were absolutely one of a kind production, but I can't put my brain around that kind of spending for any country. And I am sure that I could come up with better ideas in how to use that chump change. Better than pyrotechnics and high tech doohickeys, as beautiful as they were.People need jobs, homes saved from foreclosures; we need to feed the starving, and to do something that will last longer than a few hours. All governments seem to have that same problem with impressing the world, but I want to know why can't they think about what about saving it????